Editing Report 3

 FAIRY BREAD PRODUCTIONS 

Week(s) Commencing: 18th April - 8th May

Editing

HOD: Edwin Nicholson

Crew: Zara Samuels

Summary:

There has been a large gap in Reports from Editing as there wasn't much to say until last week (2nd May - 8th May). 

On the 3rd May the class was shown Version 8 of the Animatic. Once upon seeing this version of the animatic, I was sadly disappointed in the cut. The beginning and end were pretty good, but the middle of the animation was awful. For some reason, the pacing was too fast, the characters had hardly any character beats and much of the surrealism was lost, which in turn made the ending weak. I was not a fan of the cut. 

When going around the class hearing what everyone had to say, an overall it was clear that there were still problems with the animatic. So, I went up to the Director, Max and asked him if me and him could sit down together and go through all the animatics to piece together a better animatic. He agreed and later that evening we went to work.  On Monday me and him worked for 4 hours and 45 minutes on it. 

I knew that with 8 animatics, some of them had scenes which stood out to me that would in other iterations be removed. Parts like when Pavo bumps the table and when Pavo tried to keep the cough down with some water are scenes that had previously been swapped or removed. Those are some of my favourite parts of the animatic because they show Pavo's character. Which in this Animation is one of the most important things to have. This is a love story and for the audience to be sold on this couple being together is showing that these characters are human. Pavo bumping the table can say that he is a little nervous and clumsy. Pavo drinking water to keep the cough down shows that he is trying to control the situation but ultimately it fails. It's the trivial things that make characters interesting. 

Anyway, on the 4th of May, Me and Max sat down again along with some re-drawn sequences by the story board team (Melissa, Corrie, Bella, and Emma), Managed to produce the final animatic (Version 10) within 7 hours. 

What happened is Me and Max would go through the animatic as a whole then focus on one specific sequence, sorting the pacing and asking each other why the scene is there and why we want to keep or change it. Sometimes we would agree and sometimes we would disagree. Mostly when it came to changes that I thought were necessary it was my job to convince Max to change it and not force the change as Max is my boss. 

In the end Me and Max are incredibly happy with the cut. Luckily for us the reception to the new cut was well received. The best news was when James’s 9-year-old could understand the plot. Which to me was a big win. 

If there are any more changes it will be made in the animation stage. 

If there was one thing for next time the Head of Editing needs to be with the Director through the entirety of the Storyboard process. The Director needs a different perspective that is not afraid to challenge bluntly but is also willing to allow the director to have final say. 

Currently there is still no 3D animatic to edit as it is not finished. In the future I hope to be editing that as well. 

Tasks before next report:

• Await the 3D animatic footage.
• Get ready to edit together the first few shots for the animation.